INDIANAPOLIS — It was the strangest thing: The item sitting on the table at Lucas Oil Stadium on Friday read “Amos Alonzo Stagg Championship Trophy.” And Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst stood up on the dais in the interview room behind it, waiting for Penn State coach James Franklin and a handshake photo op with this large and shiny prize, coveted by both smiling men and their teams. That trophy ostensibly belongs to the best team in the league. Yet this year it somehow may wind up in the hands of a team that comes in second or third.
The Big Ten began December with a big nuisance: The winner of its championship game on Saturday night has an outside chance, at best, of earning a spot in the College Football Playoff.